The Secret Growing in the Garden
In China: Abigale hears from Evan Harris there are mumblings of unrest. Natives are wanting all non-Asians out of the region. (This is also a way to get rid of the Cabal). Oriental myths and demons don’t want the Cabal either. Abigale sent letters to Dr. Shelton in the US inquiring about the situation since the group left and asking if there was any more news of her husband. Shelton does not receive the letters, but a man named Augustus Garth has been writing back. He tells us that 17 people died in the church fire, including one who was ripped in half. He also said that last he heard, her husband was heading for New Orleans, confirming her suspicion that he is still alive. Per Allen’s request, the group agrees to travel to Chile to find a Timon Suarez to help cure his mysterious disease. On the way there in the dirigible, we see another ship in a black cloud flying toward us. It dissipates as it nears. Dyana hears that a man named Lazlo Kurtz has been doing ocular transplants and may be able to help her. We arrive in South America as it gets dark. Dyana’s falcon, Kydra, is sent to Suarez’s village and sees that it is overgrown and deserted, except for four bandits on the road between the town and the village. Townsfolk say they last saw Suarez a month ago. In the morning, we fly to the village. Everyone but Vander goes to the ground to knock on the door of the main house. There is a large, lush and beautiful garden, that is a corral around the back and sides of the house. It is somewhat overgrown, as well. Several buildings in town have been burned or have gigantic holes in the sides of them. When we knock, there is no answer, so we start to go inside. Three vines start coming out of the house after us. Vander shoots two, Abigale kills one, and then we bomb the structure. Allen's neck veins pop out and look like they're pulsing with green stuff. Ew. We go next to another large building, apparently an old inn. Inside are 12 female villagers, who begin to scream and rush to attack us. We attack back, Vander shoots with his rifle from the air. One villager dies. We realize they have vines coming out of them that appear to be controlling them. Some of the women seem reluctant to attack, but unable to stop. So instead, we shoot at the vines. When damaged, the women drop to the ground and the vines shrivel up. After helping the women out of the building, they tell us they were attacked a month ago and the vines attached themselves to everyone. They roamed around all day, feeding outsiders to a creature in the garden. They haven’t seen Suarez in two months. Then we go to a huge barn with two corrals. There is a loft full of hay, and it appears the stalls have been recently used. Then we moved on to the next building. As we’re walking, a window shatters and a vine shoots out, grabs Will and sucks him inside. The the spot where Will was deflates, as if he disappeared. Then we hear a scream from the garden. A glaze comes over Allen. From the windows of a building, vines reach out to grab Abigail. She shoots one and Vander shoots the other. Meanwhile, the garden begins to grow over and enclose over the middle. From the air, Vander shoots it with fire. The pods begin to grow. The leaves turn red, and smaller pods are launched at the ship. The pilot dodges. The pods continue to grow, but go back to being green. In the garden, Will sees a man-creature carved out of wood. He seriously damages it. Vander shoots a hole in one of the garden walls, and it immediately grows over. The house isn’t overgrown, so Abigail and Vander decide to go that way. Once in the foyer, they go in the left door -- it’s a kitchen with a door to the patio. No plot hook here. So they go in the right door instead. It’s a den or library. Inside is an old man’s corpse. It has a ring with initials T.S. One ring falls off his hand (the TS one), and glows slightly. The other one, when you rub it, the gold comes off. It’s green metal. Plants around TS are growing towards the body like sunflowers. Abigail takes the rings and puts them on. We go outside into a clearing. It’s a wide dome with purple flowers. We see two humanoid shapes on the far side. We also see Will with the wooden creature. (He was a turncoat). Four more creatures emerge. Abigail’s ring glows, and it gets darker around us. Casey and the wooden guy start to grow, as do the creatures. We begin combat. In combat, a cloud of stinky spores comes over Abigail, Vander and Lackey. Abigail passes out. There’s more fighting, and we finally kill the creatures. The earth starts shaking. We grab the chest and the two flowers that were making the ring glow, along with a knobby stick and a robe. We fed Casey (Allen) some of the flowers, and his green pallor begins to subside. After Abigail takes off the green ring, her eyes are black, rimmed in green like Allen’s were. We save a flower for Abigail.